The Transformation of Kostiakov's (1932)Infiltration Equation on theInfiltration Rate of Forest Land Cover in Biase, Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examined the structural stability of forest soil by applying Kostiakov's (1932) infiltration equation on measured infiltration values from the fieldin Abine, Biase, Cross River State in Nigeria. The behavior of soil structure or profile condition is paramount for scientific investigations, which is needful in the construction industry, agricultural land use and solid mineral resources inventory. Very often environmental hazards as landslide, flooding, building collapse and decline in crop yield emanate from the inadequate assessment and evaluation of soil's physical properties, before the commencement of human activities on a given land. Adopting this equation in this study, was an attempt to evaluate the structural conditions of forest soils of the region, under different hydrological regime prior to decision making on landuse and management to satisfy various stakeholders' interests. Data for the study were generated through field measurements of infiltration rates of soils using a cylinder (flooding) infiltrometer designed by Hills (1970) in both rainy (September to October) and dry (December to January) seasons in rural watershed under forest land cover. The mean values used for logarithm transformation in Kostiakov's equation of logi=log c+αlog t produced a straight line graph, whose slope value (a) ranged between 0.5 and 1. These values revealed that the soil is structurally very stableto support human activities in the construction and agricultural industries. The study recommends the application of the equation for empirical evaluation of land-uses for sustainable landuse and development